The Book of Causes

The Book of Causes

...was listed in the catalogs of the oriental manuscripts at the University Library of Leiden,¹ it was thought that this might be our Book of Causes original: "de causis".

L. Zunz was the first to voice this suspicion,² doing so with regard to and by citing that Hebrew translation. M. Steinschneider repeated it, following the aforementioned remark by Jourdain.³ Haneberg subsequently examined the manuscript itself and confirmed that its content was indeed the Book of Causes (see the Introduction).

This manuscript was lent to me for copying in the year 1873 through the kind mediation of Professor Dr. M. J. de Goeje in Leiden.

This same manuscript was brought from the Orient by the famous Arabic scholar Jakob Golius (who died in 1667) and is listed as number 209 among the Golius manuscripts.⁴ It consists of 29 leaves in a small quarto format A book size where each sheet is folded twice, creating four leaves; typically about 9 by 12 inches and is written in large, regular, flowing strokes. But unfortunately, it is no longer in its original, pristine condition. Later hands have not only provided the margins with several glosses explanatory or marginal notes added by later readers but have also incorporated changes into the text itself; through these corrections as well as erasures areas where the original ink was scraped off the parchment or paper to allow for rewriting in several places, the handwriting of the original scribe has been made unrecognizable. What is even worse, however, is that the ink has lost so much of its color over time that determining the character of the strokes is frequently associated with great difficulties, and occasionally becomes an outright impossibility. For my part—and I emphasize this with heartfelt thanks—the practiced eye of my highly respected teacher, Professor Dr.

1 Catalog of both printed and manuscript books of the public library of the University of Leiden original: "Catalogus librorum tam impressorum quam manuscriptorum bibliothecae publicae universitatis Lugduno-Batavae", Leiden 1716 in Folio, p. 447 No. 918. — Catalog of Oriental Codices of the Leiden Academic Library, by authors P. de Jong and M. J. de Goeje, vol. III. (Leiden 1865) p. 312 No. 1434.

2 In the Scientific Journal for Jewish Theology original: "Wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift für jüdische Theologie" edited by A. Geiger, Vol. 4 (Stuttgart 1839) p. 190 Note 15. — Collected Writings of Dr. Zunz original: "Gesammelte Schriften von Dr. Zunz", Vol. 3 (Berlin 1876) p. 179 Note 1.

3 M. Steinschneider, Catalog of Hebrew Books in the Bodleian Library original: "Catalogus librorum hebraeorum in bibliotheca Bodleiana" (Berlin 1852–60, in a single quarto volume) column 742. In a later passage which Haneberg overlooked, column 1404, Steinschneider was able to testify "from personal inspection" original: "ex autopsia" that the earlier suspicion was correct.

4 It is an error when Haneberg (in the work cited above, p. 365) states that the manuscript belongs to the Warner collection (the Warnerian legacy original: "legatum Warnerianum").